Nearly 19 percent drop in state tax revenue during April

State tax collections were down dramatically in April, by almost 19 percent. Jeff Robinson of the Legislative Services Agency says since April ended on a weekend, that decline is exaggerated a bit, but state tax receipts are still lagging below expectations.

“All three main tax revenue sources — individual income tax, corporate income tax and sales tax — were negative for April,” Robinson says.

Overall state tax collections for the past 10 months are running 1.2 percent ahead of the same period a year ago. It’s about $70 million dollars less than the experts had predicted.

“The main source of revenue weakness the past three months has been tax payments made when individual income tax returns are filed,” Robinson says.

Iowans paid $148 million in state income tax in February, March and April as they submitted their returns. That’s the lowest amount of income taxes paid during that period since 2007. More than 40 percent of income tax returns will be paid and processed in May, however. Robinson says that means the state’s tax revenue picture might improve this month.